Sabermetrics come to ... film writing?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/06/business/media/solving-equation-of-a-hit-film-script-with-data.html?ref=todayspaperFor as much as $20,000 per script, Mr. Bruzzese and a team of analysts compare the story structure and genre of a draft script with those of released movies, looking for clues to box-office success. His company, Worldwide Motion Picture Group, also digs into an extensive database of focus group results for similar films and surveys 1,500 potential moviegoers. What do you like? What should be changed?

One of the NPR weekend programs did a show on making hit songs, and predicting what songs would be hits.

They studied brain waves, and measured people's "pleasure".

I can't find a link, but this article references something similar:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113673324

And, it might have been the same program, or maybe a second one on the same subject, but they talked about how a song needs to be "predictable" enough for the brain to anticipate what will come next -- a beat, a chorus, etc. -- but then needs to "surprise" at times, otherwise we find it too boring, and predictable.